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Thursday, July 31, 2014

As the title states, this is about the model that got me into Circle Orboros. As shown by my Space Wolves army, I guess I do have an inclination toward wolf and werewolf themed models. Although, being in combination with a viking theme really made it a killer combo. Anyway, this model to me is my favorite werewolf model in the most intimidating scale that I've seen. The scale really drew me into Warmachine and then Hordes, having hulking machines/monsters serve as the core of an army really appeals to me.

This beast comes in both the Circle battle box and the two player starter set, so he's obviously a good model to get started with. My Feral Warpwolf has been featured in every game I've played so far and has filled a core role every time, and looked good doing it.

I used the brown two headed wolf model from my previous post as a test model for almost the exact scheme I was planning to use for this model. I did end up planning a good amount for the model its the one I was most excited about painting and using in the starter set. I went with a pretty general theme for him, I figured if I really liked the look of him, I would like the look of the whole army. It turned out well but its a simple paint scheme, I used terra earth from valejo as a base for the fur and dry brushed the longer haired areas with grey for distinction. I mixed the base color with bronzed flesh for the highlight and used bestial brown for the leather armor. All of it was brought together with a heavily watered down mix of the valejo smoky ink.

Monday, July 28, 2014

I mentioned before that I want to take a second Stormtalon to the Imperiad GT, but I wasn't sure if I would able to paint one in time. When it came time to submit my army list, I used a list with two Stormtalons, so I was committed. As soon as the buildings were done, I picked up a Stormtalon and set to work. Here's how it came out.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Before I discuss specific transports, I wanted to say a few things
about Space Marine transports in general. In 6th Edition, the
prevailing theory was that Rhinos and Razorbacks were generally worthless as
they were too easy to destroy and too likely to give up First Blood. I listened to this and spent a long time trying to run
an army that was a mass of marines on foot. It failed. Miserably. Against just
about every army. Transports provide two very important benefits to Marines.

First, transports make the squad inside much more durable.
This is obvious in the case of Marine killers like Heldrakes and Riptides,
which will destroy a squad of Marines every time they fire but have much more
difficulty destroying the Rhino. Even if they do, the squad inside is usually
safe for that turn. This durability also applies to a lot of other weapons. My
Thunderfires and Stormtalons love seeing Marines on foot, because I can do
meaningful damage to them much faster than I can in a Rhino. Even my Tactical
squads would rather hop out of their Rhinos and shoot Marines with their bolters
than rely on their meltagun to destroy an enemy transport, at which point they
will likely have to absorb the firepower of the relatively undamaged squad
inside.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

So now that I've got a couple games under my belt and I know I'm enjoying playing Circle Orboros, I have to get some of my models painted. I got started with the Hordes two player battle box which comes with a Circle force that makes about a 20 point list, which is a good starting game size. My starting Circle force consists on a warlock, Kaya, two different two headed wolves called arguses (Argi? Nah, that sounds awful.-CI), a unit of skinwalkers (half werewolf soldiers), and a huge werewolf called a feral warpwolf. Now that probably doesn't mean much to 40k players but pictures will follow soon.

Monday, July 21, 2014

While working on my new Stormtalon, I had some downtime so I decided to paint some Aspect Warriors to add to my older squads. First off, I painted another Warp Spider so that I can run my squad 10 strong without an Exarch.

A member of the original squad is on the left while the new addition is on the right.

A member of the original squad is on the left while the new addition is on the right.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Inquisitor Coteaz sat
at his private terminal aboard his gun cutter, scanning the data from his
recent encounter with the Executioners. The casualties his Grey Knights had
taken were unacceptable, and the continued presence of crusading Astartes
outside of his control was threatening his plans in this system. The
Executioners had to be exterminated or forced to leave the area, but he would
need additional forces to do so. Grey Knight reinforcements were months away.

His gaze alighted on
the most recent report on the Executioners’ location from his network of spies,
and he knew exactly how to reach his goals.

The Executioners
advanced slowly through the forests of the planet Roark’s Conundrum. They had
landed here in response to distress signals regarding a Tyranid invasion. In
truth, the invasion was an extremely small splinter and had been quickly
exterminated. The Executioners were returning to the nearest space port, which
was being protected by the Imperial Guardsmen that had heralded their arrival
with such relief. They were forced to move slowly through the rough terrain so
that the Thunderfires and Devastators on foot could keep up.

As usual,
Brother-Captain Amalric and Death-speaker Chareos rode at the head of their
Command squad. Amalric was looking forward to getting off this planet, which
had not offered the challenge he was hoping for. Most importantly, the local
governor had promised the Executioners a great deal of raw materials that would
help them continue their penitent crusade. Amalric was becoming extremely tired
of not receiving regular supplies from the Munitorium.

As the woods cleared,
the Executioners came to the halt. They had expected to see an Imperial Guard
defense line celebrating their victory, but the Guardsmen the saw were grim and
ready for battle. Behind the Guardsmen stood the silver forms of Grey Knights. Amalric
simply stared at the men they had come to rescue, who had suddenly become foes.

“This is getting out
of hand,” remarked Chareos. “We should double back and request our Thunderhawks
pick us up elsewhere. We don’t need to use the space port.” Amalric simply
growled, which was amplified to the sound of grinding steel by his armor’s vox,
and tightened his grip on his axe.

“These shiny armored
bastards are taking this personally,” the Captain snarled. “They’ve followed us
across the system. They’ve forced men we were here to help to take up arms
against us. We tried to sweep this away and move on, but it seems we’ll have to
show them why we are the Emperor’s Executioners.”

“All squads, execute
the enemy with extreme prejudice. Secure the supplies we were promised and make
sure no one thinks following us further is a good idea.”

Monday, July 14, 2014

As I mentioned previously, I volunteered to paint some GW ruins for use during the Imperiad GT and I was way behind. The last two weeks have been spent finishing them off (with the help of my wife, who it turns out is quite good at drybrushing). The paint scheme is pretty basic. They were sprayed with a dark grey and heavily drybrushed light grey. I then went over the buildings and painted the detail (there are so many skulls and lights on these kits!) before washing them with black-brown wash of my own mix. Finally, I applied weathering powder to the bases.

Some of the pictures came out less than perfect, as the ruins are larger than my photo setup. However, I think they still convey the appearance of the buildings well enough. All pictures of each building are on the same row.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Many armies in 40K have a special rule that players must master if they want to used the army to its full potential. Eldar live and die by Battle Focus (well, except for Wave Serpents and Wraithknights). An Ultramarines player must know the moment to employ each of their combat doctrines. In the last codex, Space Marine players had to learn to use Combat Tactics. In the current codex, I think the ability to use Combat Squads separates the best Space Marine players from the average ones.

Now, I'm not saying that I'm one of these best Space Marine players. My tournament standings put me at below average, but I am trying to improve. For most of my Space Marine history, I've kept my squads at full size. In my mind, this made them more durable and kept their firepower concentrated. I've been experimenting with splitting my squads lately, and I've discovered that I was dead wrong about both of these things.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

It's my pleasure to introduce a new author to the blog, my brother, who will be writing as D-Pow. He started playing Fantasy and 40K back when I did, but I'm afraid he lost his usual opponent when I left for college. In the interim, he hasn't had much to do with the hobby. Recently, he has started to get back into it. I'm very pleased that he wanted to share his experience here, and I hope that he'll bring a bit more gaming diversity to the Librarium. Enjoy!

It's been quite
awhile since I've been really into wargaming, specifically Warhammer 40K, but
awhile after graduating college and moving to Colorado I started feeling a little bit of
an itch to get back in. Given Codicier Nate has kept it in the back of my head
the whole time, I picked up a Black Library book about Space Wolves and jumped
back in. That's how all of this started.

The first
interaction I really had with the super new and improved world of gaming was on
Kickstarter. I love Kickstarter and am inspired by so many things on there, but
I had never even noticed the games section. I think I assumed it was all about
indie video games, but then I discovered the miniatures and board games being
crowd funded there. Checking out all of the great ideas for new games and
innovations on existing games was awesome and opened my eyes to how huge a
community there is now. Next, I started checking out some podcasts to go along
with the ones I already listened to and have been pretty blown away by how many
are out there. I've picked up some board games as well to broaden my gaming and
have gotten some friends into board games as well. I could definitely make a
lame pun about Kickstarter kickstarting my hobby again but I'll skip that. A
lot of things came together and reignited my interest.

Monday, July 7, 2014

This batch of Executioners is all about adding Dakka! to my Tactical squads. With a third squad, I needed a third heavy bolter. They've been working out well for me. In addition, I keep having extra points left when designing my army lists and I decided that storm bolters for my Sergeants would be a good way to fill in the points. When I combat squad, the storm bolter wielding Sergeant can go in the squad with the heavy bolter, giving me more firepower at range.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Scouts are generally considered as a secondary Troops
choice, useful for specialist roles while Tactical squads provide the backbone
of your force. While I don’t want to take anything away from Tactical squads, I
think Scouts should really be considered as a prominent Troops choice. They are
cheap relative to Tactical Marines, but they lack a point of WS and BS, and
they only have 4+ armor. More importantly, they lack the option for a special
weapon and can only take a heavy bolter (with or without hellfire shells) or a
missile launcher as their heavy weapon. This means they lack the specialized
firepower available to Tactical squads, but offer budget anti-infantry
firepower.

There are two rules that really open up a lot of options for
Scouts; Scout and Infiltrate. Between the two of them, you
should never have to start more than 12” away from the enemy, and you can often
pick vulnerable or important units to target. While you won’t be able to launch
an immediate assault in your first turn, you can certainly hit the enemy with a
lot of firepower relatively cheaply. I’ve even read that Reece over atFrontline Gaming has been using them to alpha strike Jetseer Councils. Though I
haven’t managed that myself, it’s pretty impressive for such a cheap unit.